SERVICE: A Culture Of Solidarity by Pope Francis

What does serving mean? It means giving an attentive welcome to a person who arrives. It means bending over those in need and stretching out a hand to them, without calculation, without fear, but with tenderness and understanding, just as Jesus knelt to wash the apostles’ feet. Serving means working beside the neediest of people, establishing with them first and foremost human relationships of closeness and bonds of solidarity. Solidarity, this word that frightens the developed world. People try to avoid saying it. Solidarity to them is almost a bad word. But it is our word! Serving means recognizing and accepting requests for justice and hope, and seeking roads together, real paths that lead to liberation.

The poor are also the privileged teachers of our knowledge of God; their frailty and simplicity unmask our selfishness, our false security, and our claim to be self-sufficient. The poor guide us to experience God’s closeness and tenderness, to receive his love in our life, his mercy as the Father who cares for us, for all of us, with discretion and patient trust.

From this place of welcome, encounter, and service, I would therefore like to launch a question to everyone, to all the people who live here, in this Diocese of Rome: Ask yourself, Do I bend down over someone in difficulty, or am I afraid of getting my hands dirty? Am I closed in on myself and my possessions, or am I aware of those in need of help? Do I serve only myself, or am I able to serve others, like Christ, who came to serve even to the point of giving up his life? Do I look in the eye of those who are asking for justice, or do I turn my gaze aside to avoid looking them in the eye?

A second word: accompanying. In recent years the Astalli Centre has progressed. At the outset it offered services of basic hospitality: a soup kitchen, a place to sleep, legal assistance. It then learned to accompany people in their search for a job and to fit into society. Then it also proposed cultural activities so as to contribute to increasing a culture of acceptance, a culture of encounter and of solidarity, starting with the safeguard of human rights.

Accompanying on its own is not enough. It is not enough to offer someone a sandwich unless it is accompanied by the possibility of learning how to stand on one’s own two feet. Charity that leaves the poor person as he or she is, is not sufficient. True mercy, the mercy God gives to us and teaches us, demands justice; it demands that the poor find the way to be poor no longer. It asks – and it asks us, the church, us, the city of Rome, it asks the institutions – to ensure that no one ever again stand in need of a soup kitchen, of makeshift lodgings, of a service of legal assistance in order to have their legitimate right recognized to live and to work, to be fully a person. Adam said, “It is our duty as refugees to do our best to be integrated in Italy.” And this is a right: integration! And Carol said, “Syrians in Europe feel the great responsibility not to be a burden. We want to feel we are an active part of a new society.” This is a right, too! So this responsibility is the ethical basis, it is the power to build together. I wonder: do we accompany people in this process?

The third word: defending. Serving and accompanying also means defending; it means taking the side of the weakest. How often do we raise our voice to defend our own rights, but how often we are indifferent to the rights of others! How many times we don’t know or don’t want to give voice to the voice of those – like you – who have suffered and are suffering, of those who have seen their own rights trampled upon, of those who have experienced so much violence that it has even stifled their desire to have justice done!

It is important for the whole church that welcoming the poor and promoting justice not be entrusted solely to “experts” but become a focus of all pastoral care, of the formation of future priests and religious, and of the ordinary work of all parishes, movements, and ecclesial groups. In particular – this is important and I say it from my heart – I would also like to ask religious institutes to interpret seriously and with responsibility this sign of the times. The Lord calls us to live with greater courage, generosity, and hospitality in communities, in houses, and in empty convents. Dear men and women religious, your empty convents are not useful to the church if they are turned into hotels that earn money. The empty convents do not belong to you; they are for the flesh of Christ, which is what refugees are. The Lord calls us to live with greater courage and generosity, and to accept them in communities, houses, and empty convents. This, of course, is not something simple; it requires a criterion and responsibility, but also courage. We do a great deal, but perhaps we are called to do more, firmly accepting and sharing with those whom Providence has given us to serve.

Follow blog via email

Intercessory prayer at Finding Solace

1 Last night the geese came back, slanting fast from the blossom of the rising moon down to the black pond. A muskrat swimming in the twilight saw them and hurried to the secret lodges to tell everyone spring had come. And so it had. By morning when I went out the last of the […]

Welcome to Chiara Center, A Franciscan Place of Spirituality. Grounded in the spirit of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, Chiara Center offers a peaceful, inspirational setting for individuals, couples, and groups who seek Christ’s healing presence. About Us Chiara Center is one of the healing ministries of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. All […]

The Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center is designed for religious groups and not-for-profits seeking retreat accommodations and meeting space. As a ministry of the Cenacle Sisters, we welcome groups of diverse faiths and provide exceptional services at affordable rates. With confidence in the abiding and transforming presence of the Holy Spirit in our worl […]

Loyola’s Retreat and Ecology Campus (LUREC) provides a peaceful setting where individuals and groups are empowered to do the work necessary for reconnection and renewal of the mind, body, and spirit. We promote the integration of prayer, reflection, and discernment into the lives of our community members, and hope to extend the same services to […]

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9a) I always thought that were I ever to encounter romantic love—in myself for another, in another for me—even if it meant turning my back on God and all his being, I would choose […]

Pick a category and read

Pick a category and read

Months of writing

Months of writing

Most liked writing

I have written before about the lesson of re-creation. I’ve added a hyphen here, because the lesson is not about having fun on a beach, but of creating yourself anew. It’s about healing. Deep healing. Healing of wounds that have slammed into you and taken up real space in your mind and soul. It’s symbol is the number 8. The top circle of the number represents going through the experience again with your mind. The bottom circle of the number represents going through [...]

It came to me suddenly the other that one very big key to successful praying is that we need to believe in prayer. It sounds obvious. It sounds simple. But it’s neither. We come to prayer in what seems like a simple way: grace before meals, the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps, before bed. These prayers, like those during mass on Sunday, become a part of our lives from a very early age. But [...]

White hats go with the good guys. Black hats go with the bad buys. Even I know that. Except, in truth, I don’t. While we assign only good qualities to the light and bad qualities to the dark, with the soul, there are no real values assigned. To anything. We like to think of God bringing us the light into our lives. But God has his finger in the darkness of our lives, too. And Jesus. [...]

This has been a time of digging for me. An unusual thing for me to do, to spend time praying and having visions about my emotional make-up. Most usually, this has always been spent on studying the nature of God. Not me. Never me. And most certainly not or never on emotions. (I feel like a teenage girl about to go, eeeeuuuuwwwwww.) And the thing about periods of personal spiritual growth is that I always, always wind up learning [...]